From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

Children Overboard affair

2001 Australian political controversy

Summary

2001 Australian political controversy

The Children Overboard affair was an Australian political controversy involving public allegations by Howard government ministers in the lead-up to the 2001 federal election, that seafaring asylum seekers had thrown children overboard in a presumed ploy to secure rescue and passage on 7 October 2001.

The government's handling of this and other events involving unauthorised arrivals worked to its advantage. The Tampa affair had led the government to adopt stricter border protection measures to prevent unauthorised arrivals from reaching Australia by boat. Polls indicated the measures had public support. The government was able to portray itself as "strong" on border protection measures and its opponents as "weak". In November 2001, the Liberal-National coalition was re-elected with an increased majority.

The Australian Senate Select Committee for an inquiry into a certain maritime incident later found that no children had been at risk of being thrown overboard and that the government had known this prior to the election. The government was criticised for misleading the public and cynically "(exploiting) voters' fears of a wave of illegal immigrants by demonising asylum-seekers".{{ cite news

Although reports indicated that the strain of being towed was the proximate cause of the asylum seeker boat eventually sinking, Australian Prime Minister John Howard asserted that the asylum seekers "irresponsibly sank the damn boat, which put their children in the water".

Background

In the early afternoon of 6 October 2001, HMAS Adelaide intercepted a southbound wooden-hulled vessel, designated SIEV 4 (Suspected Irregular Entry Vessel), carrying 223 passengers and crew, 100 nmi north of Christmas Island, and the vessel then sank. The next day, which was the day before the issue of writs for the 2001 federal election, Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock announced that passengers of SIEV 4 had threatened to throw children overboard. This claim was later repeated by other senior government ministers including Defence Minister Peter Reith and Prime Minister Howard.{{ cite news |author-link=Jenny Brockie |url-status=dead |url-status= dead

Senate inquiry

A Senate select committee inquiry, composed mainly of non-government senators, found that no children were thrown overboard from SIEV 4, that the evidence did not support the Children Overboard claim, and that the photographs purported to show children thrown into the sea were taken after SIEV 4 sank. In response, Howard said that he acted on the intelligence he was given at the time.

A minority dissenting report, authored by government senators on the committee, described the inquiry as driven by a "misplaced sense of self-righteous outrage [felt] by the Australian Labor Party at its defeat in the 2001 federal elections". An appendix to their report documented cases where passengers aboard other SIEVs had threatened children, sabotaged their own vessels, committed self-harm and, in the case of SIEV 7 on 22 October, thrown a child overboard who was rescued by another asylum seeker.{{cite web |url-status= live

Scrafton revelations

Michael Scrafton, a former senior advisor to Peter Reith, revealed on 16 August 2004 that he told Howard on 7 November 2001 that the Children Overboard claim might be untrue.{{ cite news | author-link=Greg Jennett | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071208201930/http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2004/08/16/1177170.htm | url-status=dead | archive-date=8 December 2007

On 29 August, Howard announced the 2004 federal election. On 1 September, a second inquiry composed mainly of non-government senators was convened.{{ cite news | url-status=dead

References

David Marr. (28 February 2006). "Truth overboard : the story that won't go away". Fairfax.
George Megalogenis. (27 February 2006). "They sank the boat, Howard says". The Australian.
[http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/committee/maritime_incident_ctte/report/c03.htm Majority Report – Chapter 3 – The 'Children Overboard' Incident: Events and Initial Report], Select Committee on A Certain Maritime Incident, 23 October 2002 {{webarchive. link. (17 September 2007)
[http://aec.gov.au/Elections/Australian_Electoral_History/hodate.htm Election Dates (1901 to Present) – House of Representatives], Australian Electoral Commission
[http://www.truthoverboard.com/photos.html Truth overboard] {{webarchive. link. (28 January 2008)
[http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/Committee/scrafton_ctte/media/310804.pdf Media Release], Senate Select Committee on the Scrafton Evidence, 31 August 2004 {{webarchive. link. (18 September 2007)
[http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/Committee/scrafton_ctte/ Senate Select Committee on the Scrafton Evidence], 9 December 2004 {{webarchive. link. (10 September 2007)

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

2001-in-australia international-maritime-incidents illegal-immigration-to-australia suspected-illegal-entry-vessels howard-government maritime-incidents-involving-migrants

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about Children Overboard affair — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report